JERUSALEM — In the months since the October 7, 2023 massacre — the deadliest antisemitic assault since the Holocaust — Israel has waged a multifront war against Iranian-backed terror networks, with major military operations focused on neutralizing Hamas in the Gaza Strip. What began as a devastating terrorist invasion has transformed into one of the region’s most consequential military campaigns of the 21st century, as Israel’s government argues its actions are a matter of survival and regional order.
On October 7, thousands of Hamas terrorists stormed from Gaza into southern Israel, executing civilians, committing sexual and physical abuse, mutilating bodies, and taking over 200 hostages, among them women, children, and the elderly. International investigators and Israeli forensic teams have documented systematic atrocities, with evidence available to global media and human rights officials. The attack, which left over 1,200 dead, ignited both national trauma and global outrage, forcing a recalibration of Israel’s security policies and revising international perceptions of the stakes involved.
Israel’s stated goal in its Iron Swords War has been unambiguous: the destruction of Hamas’s operational capabilities, the recovery of abducted hostages, and the restoration of deterrence along its borders. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), under Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, have conducted extensive ground operations into Gaza, targeting Hamas command centers, tunnel systems, and weapons caches while employing advanced defense systems such as Iron Dome against thousands of rocket salvos targeting Israeli civilian populations.
Government officials led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz delineate clear responsibility for civilian casualties, consistently emphasizing Hamas’s tactic of embedding terror infrastructure within Gaza’s civilian environment. The IDF uses prior warnings, evacuation corridors, targeted strikes, and humanitarian pauses despite the extreme challenges of urban warfare imposed by an adversary devoted to maximizing civilian exposure. Israeli military-medical teams operate field hospitals and triage stations not only for IDF personnel but—where security permits—for injured Gaza residents, maintaining a distinction between combatants and non-combatants in word and practice.
A NETWORK OF PROXIES
However, the Gaza campaign is just one aspect of Israel’s broader confrontation with an Iranian-led axis. Tehran has cultivated a widespread proxy network: Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and affiliated Shi’ite militias in Syria and Iraq. Intelligence assessments estimate the Iranian regime provides hundreds of millions annually in funding, weapons, operational direction, and ideological indoctrination to these groups, binding them to the strategic goal of Israel’s destruction and regional destabilization.
Northern Israel has faced sustained Hezbollah rocket and drone attacks since October, forcing evacuations in vulnerable towns and drawing repeated Israeli warnings that it will not allow a second front to materialize. Across the Middle East, Iranian-backed militias harass U.S. and Israeli assets. Red Sea commerce came under direct threat from Yemeni Houthis, showcasing Tehran’s intent to disrupt global trade and energy flows as leverage. These intertwined fronts demonstrate the scale of Iran’s ambitions and underscore the security nightmare confronting the Israeli government.
Hostages remain core to Israel’s ongoing operation, with scores of abducted civilians and soldiers believed held in Hamas-controlled tunnels beneath Gaza. Israeli authorities and global humanitarian agencies highlight the distinction between these innocent victims and the convicted terrorists Hamas seeks in release negotiations, reinforcing the desertion of any moral equivalence between acts of terror and Israel’s adherence to international law.
INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE AND DIPLOMATIC STRAINS
Israel’s operations have been scrutinized by the United Nations, EU, and a range of international NGOs, whose calls for ceasefires or negotiations with militants are rejected by Jerusalem unless based on full demilitarization and return of hostages. Israel frames such demands as both legally and morally flawed: historical precedents show that half-measures merely embolden further attacks and deepen the cycle of violence foisted upon the Israeli public.
Intense debate continues in Washington and across the West regarding sanctions on Iran and diplomatic engagement strategy. The Israeli government urges a tightening of economic sanctions, political isolation of Iran, and continued military and intelligence cooperation. Officials highlight that the Abraham Accords—symbolic of Israel’s normalization with several Arab states—prove that progress is viable if regional actors collectively recognize the threat posed by Tehran’s proxies and refuse to normalize terror domination.
THE HUMANITARIAN IMPERATIVE
While waging a determined campaign for national survival, Israel prioritizes humanitarian protocols. Documented evidence shows the IDF regularly broadcasts evacuation notices to Gaza neighborhoods, coordinates aid delivery, and accepts operational risk to protect non-combatants. Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and schools, has been shown in independent reporting to be repurposed by Hamas as cover for weapons, tunnels, and command centers—a fact substantiated by captured documents, satellite imagery, and debriefs of detained operatives.
Israeli officials point out that every nation has the right—and obligation—to protect its citizens from indiscriminate terror, a stance that remains codified in international law. By contrast, Hamas and its Iranian sponsors continue to articulate genocidal rhetoric and pursue attacks designed for maximum civilian harm.
INFORMATION WARFARE AND ANTISEMITISM
A parallel front remains the information war. Israeli diplomats and investigative journalists have exposed systemic misinformation campaigns coordinated by Hamas, involving manipulated casualty claims, staged imagery, and fabricated narratives spread via social and traditional media. The specter of rising antisemitism—observed particularly on Western university campuses and in certain public demonstrations—compounds the need for accurate, factual reporting. The Israeli government has expanded public diplomacy efforts, providing evidence to global partners to maintain public clarity about the origins and conduct of this war.
LOOKING AHEAD
Within Israel, the population demonstrates high levels of unity and resilience, with record numbers of reservists serving in both active and support roles and unprecedented civil society mobilization to support the war effort and advocate for hostages. The leadership and the public alike hold that nothing less than the disarmament of Hamas and a strategic rollback of Iranian regional influence can secure Israel’s future. Military campaigns are matched by diplomatic, intelligence, and information operations across multiple theaters.
The outcome of the Iron Swords War will have profound implications beyond Israel alone. The ability of democratic states to defeat terror proxies, prevent the collapse of regional order, and uphold the standards of law and morality are being tested. Ultimately, Israel’s campaign against Iranian-backed terror is inseparable from the broader fight of the global community against extremism and for the survival of open societies. As global attention focuses on the outcome in Gaza and beyond, Israel’s battle is widely regarded as a defining conflict of our time.
